Construction work commenced in June 2020
Construction work on the five-kilometre Ningo-Prampram sea defence and land reclamation project in the Ningo-Prapram District of the Greater Accra Region is progressing steadily and is expected to be completed by end of December this year.
Mr Kwasi Sarpong Osei, Project Manager for Messrs Bridge Global Consolidated Limited, the construction company undertaking the project, stated the readiness of the Company to go by the project schedule and appealed to the government to expedite the release of funds to fast-track work on the project.
Speaking in an interview with the media during a working visit by Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister of Works and Housing to some sea defence projects in the Greater Accra Region, on Tuesday, Mr Osei said the Company was yet to receive funds from Government since work started on the project for over a year.
He said work would, therefore, be greatly affected if the government failed to release funds by mid-August, 2021, saying the Company was at a “breaking point.”
“Funding is very critical and as an engineer, I am very grateful to my superiors that they have managed to get us this equipment and material supply has been constant. But you know that we belong to a very big conglomerate so cash flow has been managed but we are getting to a critical stage, we are hopeful that with the Minister’s visit he will do something.
“We have submitted certificates worth more than GHC40 million and we are at a point of submitting another one to make up to about GHC100 million and still not a pesewa has been received and we are getting to our breaking point,” Mr Osei said.
The visit formed part of the Minister’s tour of some coastal communities across the country to ascertain the level of destruction caused by tidal waves and to assess projects the Ministry was undertaking to protect the communities.
Mr Osei said over 50 per cent of work on the project was complete with 2.6-kilometres of sea defence out of the total five-kilometres completed, adding that the remaining 2.4 kilometres would be completed within the next five months.
Also, out of a total of 24 groynes to be constructed, eleven had been completed with six others at the foundation stage and assured that more groynes would be completed by the end of the month to ensure that the Company met its December deadline.
In December, 2019, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of the Ningo-Prampram Sea Defence and Land Reclamation project. The $70 million projects, which are under the Ningo-Prampram Coastal Protection Project involves the construction of an armour rock revetment, the construction of a system of groynes, and the reclamation of the land.
The Works and Housing Minister also visited the Dansoman sea defence project in the Ablekuma West Municipality where work on the two-kilometre project was 95 percent complete.
Speaking to the media after the tour, Mr Asenso-Boakye said he was overwhelmed by the level of destruction tidal wave attacks had caused in the communities.
He, therefore, reiterated the Government’s commitment to protecting coastal communities against tidal wave attacks and sea erosion, assuring that Government would continue to invest funds into sea defence projects because, “We are not only protecting the lives of people by constructing sea defence, we are protecting livelihoods and even promoting economic activities.”